Stellar astrophysics has entered a new golden age, thanks to wonderfully
precise measurements being returned by NASA ’s Kepler mission. Kepler is a
0.9-metre space telescope that has been monitoring the brightness of more
than 100,000 stars with extraordinary accuracy for more than four years.
Its main goal is to discover extra-solar planets by detecting the small
dips in light as they transit their parent stars. The mission has been
spectacularly successful, with thousands of candidates reported.
Meanwhile, Kepler’s observations of oscillations in thousands of stars have
led to a revolution in asteroseismology. I will review key results include
detecting gravity modes in red giant stars and characterizing stars found
to host exoplanets. Results from ESA ’s Gaia mission will add to the
excitement, as will the launch of TESS , which is an all-sky follow-up
mission to Kepler.